October 6th in Amsterdam, New York, 20 people were killed in a limousine crash. The limousine failed to stop at an intersection and slammed into an SUV in the town of Schoharie, New York. The limo was traveling about 25 miles west of Albany, the capital of New York. All deceased were passengers in the limo and two bystanders. The bystanders were killed outside the Apple Barrel Country Store and Cafe when the limo crashed. All 20 passengers died in the crash. The accident happened a little before 2 pm. The state police stated, “The limo struck an unoccupied Toyota Highlander in a parking lot of a local country store, which then hit and killed the two bystanders.”

The National Transportation Safety Board has begun to investigate the accident. The crash was, “The most deadly transportation accident in this country since February 2009,” said Chairman Robert Sumwalt. The one before this was when a plane crashed into a house outside Buffalo, New York killing 49 people, “The investigation is supposed to take five days,” said Sumwalt.

The New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has stated, "To provide every resource necessary to aid in this investigation and determine what led to this tragedy."

A woman named Amy Dunlop-Johnson who had three family members of hers in the limousine accident killed, “The limo was transporting the group between wineries in the area, which is a popular fall tourist destination,” said Dunlop-Johnson.

More than six ambulances and two helicopters came to the accident scene. Cuomo stated, “The vehicle shouldn’t have even been on the road.”

The driver did not have the appropriate driver’s licenses to be driving the limo. The reason for the limo crash is still unknown, "We don't know the cause of the accident, if it was a vehicle malfunction if it was a driver malfunction (or) a driver error," Cuomo said.”

Shahed Hussain, who owns the limousine company, “Prestige Limousine Chauffeur” the company that provided the limousine’s son, Nauman Hussain, was arrested due to accusations of homicide after the deadly crash. The New York police arrested him on October 10th, which was a week after the accident occurred. ​State police and Department of Transportation informing him that the driver, “Should not have been operating the type of vehicle involved,” in Saturday's crash, he is 28 years old. After Nauman was arrested, he was forced to give up his U.S. passport. The owner and his family are still in Pakistan. When the question was if he will come back to the U.S., he answered, “He is ready and able to come back whenever they need him, his heart is broken, and his family's heart is broken... Anything that he can do to make this right, he'll do, and he's so very sorry for everything that's happened.”

by Matthew Kelly '19

It has been 88 years since Commander William F. Bullis founded the school we call home. Since then, Bullis has made it a priority to excel in academics, arts, and athletics; preparing kids for life beyond school as well. In this 88th year, we welcome in the class of 2022 and begin sending off the class of 2019. While we are not opening a new building, the Tranquility fountain was built in the middle of campus.The first few weeks is a chance for everyone to start with a fresh slate. It is a chance for students to begin on the right track if last year did not go the way they wanted. They can also participate in fall activities they did not have the chance to do last year.For incoming freshman, the beginning of the school year is filled with nervousness and excitement. They will go from being the top dogs of middle school to the babies of high school. Their first week is more of an introduction to the upper school, with two days of classes and getting to know each other before experimental ed. For the sophomores, finally, not the bottom of the pile. No longer being looked at as the youngest in the school. They begin taking on more leadership roles in the classroom and beyond. Juniors have finally made it, to parking at the stadium. Being an upperclassman carries a significant role in the community. They are now expected to be leaders for not only the Upper School but the entire Bullis school.Seniors, it is now time to shine. All eyes will be on you, as you look to close out your tenure at Bullis with a successful year in the classroom, on stage, and on the field. Being a senior means carrying the entire weight of the school on your shoulders, everything starts from the top down. The energy surrounding the school this year has been unrivaled compared to previous years, “The first weeks back were significantly better in tone and tempo than my first two openings,” said Upper School Assistant Principal Mr. Bailey.The spirit shown at the first home football game was praised by students and staff. The booster club provided the school with a whiteout theme, “ the student section was a game-changer, we had more attendance and spirit then Quince Orchard did,” said Booster Club President Ike Simon (‘19).Judging from the banners in front of the student section, the senior class expects to win, drawing praise from Mr. Bailey, “We especially like the direction of the banners in front of the student section and the message,” said Bailey.The first weeks back have been a positive sign for the year to come. As a student body, we must continue the high spirits.​

The 10th annual Bullis Gives Back 5K run is back and would like to set a new attendance record this year. The event took off when the late Michelle Benaim took it over back in 2014. She was a beloved woman in our community and represented all the qualities of an exc​ellent. It takes place on Sunday, April 29th at 8:30am and costs $10 that goes to charity.

The 5K consists of many fun events, that involve running, walking and various group activities throughout the morning. More importantly, students will have a buddy. We are officially naming the Buddy Run “The Michelle Benaim Buddy Run and Olympics” to recognize all she did for this program. This day is mainly about showing our buddies a good time and making them happy. The Bullis community is doing this to support KEEN Greater DC, Diener School, Special Olympics Montgomery County, Habitat for Humanity, and S.A.F.E. (A fund covering student activities and textbooks for Bullis students in need). Because of everyone’s grateful donations, we were able to raise $45,000 in last year’s event and want to raise more for the greater good of our community.

This year we are sponsored by Greater Washington Orthopaedic Group. Our theme for the run this year is “Choose to Include.” This theme covers everything we are trying to accomplish in the event. Having our buddies feel a sense of inclusivity while enjoying themselves is a key element of what we’re trying to accomplish. Bringing a smile on their faces, as well as their parents’ is just another goal of the event because everyone deserves to experience happiness. Since Bullis as a community is fortunate enough to be blessed with great people, buildings, & resources, we feel as if it is our duty to give back and share our blessings with others. We are profiting in any way involving the event, just benefitting seeing all the happy faces knowing that we contributed to that happiness.

We want as many people to come and experience a great time. We hope to see you there lending a helping hand. It should be an exciting event and join us in giving back to others!

On Thursday April 12, Bullis had a special guest speaker. Michelle Poler, a social entrepreneur, a fear facer, and a motivational speaker came to speak to the entire upper school. Michelle grew up with many fears in life. As she got older she realized that the fears were holding her back. Tired of being fearful of everything, Michelle decided to take a stand.Michelle decided to create a project called 100 days without fear. For one hundred days, Poler faced a different fear of hers every single day. Over these one hundred days, she faced fears such as, dancing in public, jumping off cliffs, and speaking to large crowds. Her project was a success and it went viral. Her project ended up being featured on networks like CNN, CBS, Fox News, and the Huffington Post. Out of the one hundred days without fear, the most important day for Michelle’s career, was the one hundredth day. On this day Michelle decided to face her fear of giving a motivational talk. She faced this fear by giving a Tedx talk. Michelle delivered a wonderful Ted talk. From that moment on, Michelle would give motivational talks all over the world, about what she learned by facing her fears. Michelle has spoken in front of major corporations such as Youtube, Google, and ESPN. We were extremely lucky to be able to get her to speak at Bullis. Michelle shared her story and extremely important life lessons with us. For example, Michelle spoke about how to face fears, and what facing fears can do for you. She taught us on how to change our perspective. “What’s the best thing that can happen?” Michelle preached on this statement. Instead of asking yourself, “what’s the worst thing that can happen?” She asked us to focus on the positives and the best things. This is one of the many messages Michelle shared with us. What other messages did the Bullis students take away from Michelle Polers talk?“Michelle was extremely inspiring” Said Bullis senior Johnathan Hsu. Many Bullis students, if not all, were in agreement with Johnny. “I loved Michelle’s message, I thought it was very powerful.” Stated Bullis track star Masai Russell. Michelle changed the way many students viewed fear. “Her message changed my viewpoint, just from her speech I felt less fearful.” Said Ciera Pyles. Michelle was an inspiration for us all. Battling fear can be a major problem for us all. If we apply Poler’s lessons to our daily lives, it may help us defeat our fears. We thank her for the time and very grateful for her attendance. ​

Do you know if it’s legal to use your neighbor’s WIFI without permission? Do you know what a firewall is and if you should have one or not? At Bullis, Mr. Coburn can answer those questions for you - in his new class, CyberSecurity. This is a new class at Bullis, and there are 12 students now learning about topics such as networking and communication, operating systems and the ethical and legal concepts in the cyber world.

Mr. Colburn explains, “The goal of the class is to be able to better understand the internet of things (IOT) and what each student can do to better secure their computer and networks they are interacting with.

One of the most useful exercises happened on the first day, when the class was asked to run a scan on their computers to see who had a virus. While the majority of the Bullis population actually have viruses on their computers, (Mr. Angelo sees 6-7 kids a week who need to get them off) no one in the Cyber Security class did. Mr. Angelo says that most kids download viruses because they are not paying attention. These viruses can take a while to detect, and even Macs can get them. This started a discussion that helps students learn more about how to protect themselves and their electronics. Samantha Durham (‘18) finds the class fascinating, “I am learning about how the internet and computers work - not so much how we use them, but how they “think”’. Many people do not realize how much information they computers hold and share. This class helps students understand this. The field of cybersecurity is growing as we depend more and more on computers. The University of Maryland offers two Bachelor’s degrees, Computer Networks and Cybersecurityand Cybersecurity Management and Policy. This shows there is a need for more people to help run, maintain and design computer systems as well as make them safe. Cybersecurity goes beyond viruses on computers. LinkedIn, a networking company, was hacked in 2012 and they hackers sold over 117 million people’s identities. In 2017 Chipotle was hacked by people phishing millions of credit card numbers.

Anyone can be hacked or compromised, but at Bullis a small number of students are learning how to make a difference and hopefully protect us all.

Snapchat has released an update that has caused millions of teens to revolt. The update changes the format of the entire app. Already, there are petitions going around with over half a million signees. The update was supposed to “separate the social from the media,” said Snap Inc.

“You can’t see other peoples’ stories easily, and the format of how they did the story page makes the app only famous people or community stories,” said Ashton Allen (‘20)

The new update puts pictures and stories involving your friends on the left side on the app, and everything that has to do with media and advertising on the right side. This is a change from where your friend's pictures sent to you would be on the left, and all stories posted would be on the right. “It makes the app more complicated,” said Leah Melrod (‘19)

The change has caused lots of displeasure among friends, “I don't like how the stories are on the same side of my Snaps,” said Friedlander (‘19).

The new friend page is not in the order of the people you last spoke to either; instead, “The new friends page to the left of the camera displays your friends based on the way you communicate with them,” said Snap.

The update has received great backlash from the majority of the users, causing Snapchat users to ask for a certain amount of retweets to get the old version back. One account was asked to get 50,000 retweets in order to get the update changed, and at the time of writing this article, the tweet has over 1.3 million retweets in 3 days. That makes the tweet the 6th most popular tweet of all time. “The fact that it is hard to use, is what I don’t like,” said Michael Friedlander (‘19)

There has been no change yet to the app, with users hoping that soon the old app will be back to normal. The company’s stock was at its second lowest point over the last year when the update was released. “People said it will die off, but right now I won’t be using it less,” said Allen (‘20)

Other students have been using it less since the update, “Yes, I’ll use it less,” said Melrod (‘19).​The old version of the app, making users happy for the time being. Then, the company can use this time to improve the updated version, and fit it to what the people want the app to be. This will allow for users to be happy and the app to continue adapting to society's wants. “They should change it back to the old format,” said Allen (‘20)

There is no alternative to snapchat. There are no other apps that compete with its style. If there is any other app like it, snapchat is more advanced from any other app currently, “No, nothing is really like Snapchat,” said Melrod (‘19).

Bullis Students Reflect on Black History MonthBlack History month was created in 1926 by historian, Carter G. Woodson who declared February, Black History Month. Woodson wanted to spread awareness of many achievements made by African Americans. ( See Black History Month Video) Initially, , Black History Month was just celebrated during the second week of February, now it is celebrated for the entire month.“It's amazing how a month is dedicated to African Americans. Also how much success they have made in this country,” said senior Justin Kelly(‘18). There are many African Americans who have changed the way people live their lives today. These include Jackie Robinson, who broke the color barrier in baseball, Rosa Parks, who refused to sit in the back of a public bus, and arguably the most famous, Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. King was an activist who was a popular spokesman in the south arguing for equality for African Americans in the south.Jackie Robinson was born in January 1919 in Georgia. Robinson had a love for baseball, but African Americans were banned from the MLB.. In 1945, Robinson got the chance to be the first African American baseball player to play in the MLB. He was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers. Many fans were not happy with this. He was booed and attacked with racial slurs every game. This did not bother him. He continued to play the sport he loved and eventually won numerous awards such as the MVP (Most Valuable Player Award). (Jackie Robinson Biography). Rosa Parks is is known for her act of refusing to sit in the back of a public bus. She was then arrested and that led to the bus boycott that started on December 5th, 1955 and lasted till December 20th, 1955. African Americans refused to ride any public bus. Bullis celebrated Black History month at a special all-school assembly on 2/14.

“It's a time to celebrate the famous figures that came before me to shape my life,” said Phillip Smith (‘19).

By Athena Skoufias '18​ Each school year, the Bullis Parent Association sponsors an enrichment program in hopes to further enhance the school’s curriculum. The sponsorship gives creative opportunities to the faculty to propose and pursue events and speakers to come in and enrich the mindset of the students in a way that textbooks or lessons cannot.

This year, the Parents Association Faculty Enrichment Grants Program granted a total of $13,066.37 to nine grant programs for the 2017-2018 school year. A representative from the PA board stated that “the feedback from the committee members was very positive: everyone was exceedingly impressed with the creativity, care, thoughtfulness, and thoroughness that the teachers had put into their applications”.

One of the nine grant programs that will be happening this year is called “The News Literacy Project: How to Know What to Believe”, which was proposed to the board by Ms. Clarke and Mr. Kosegarten. The program will take place over the course of two days, January 11th and 12th. On the first day of the program, Ms. Clarke describes the event as being “a general enrichment discussion” led by journalist Peter Adams, on the issue of news literacy through print news, images, statistics, and more. It will also cover the concept of “fake news” and the growing controversy of the reliability of news sources.

The following day, about four courses will be turned into workshops for the day by “taking in these concepts of news literacy and putting them into practice with the help of Peter Adams” says Ms. Clarke. The classes that will be participating in this include a statistic class, comparative government class, contemporary global issues class, and the journalism class. “We wanted to not only introduce this concept theoretically through a lecture but pragmatically through hands-on workshops,” says Ms. Clarke.​​The hope of the enrichment program is to not only learn about the issue of “fake news” and the reliability of sources, but it is to also spark conversations and discussions about this prevently topic and trend from the greater society into our community at Bullis. It is recognized, however, that these discussions and conversations will include students of a wide range of ideas and beliefs that may ignite prevailing ideas, but through meaningful and productive conversations and exchanges of ideas, we could learn from each other as a community.

by Harry Kaplan ('19)

New Years! The big countdown to when the ball drops!

New Year's Day in the United States takes place on January 1st with celebrations taking place on December 31st. New Year’s represents the day we start over with the annual calendar and, to many, it represents a start-over with new personal goals.

January 1st has marked the New Year dating back to 45 B.C.. Adults go from celebrating on the eve to then thinking thoroughly about next year's’ resolutions . Celebrating New Years has become a tradition around America. Around two million people travel across the country to visit family and friends to experience the countdown to a new year.

On New Year's Day, people may go to church, or stay home with family, or even go to New York to see the ball drop in person. New Years is a holiday where everyone reflects on the last 12 months while celebrating.

Diego Motta (‘19) said, “Probably just going to go see some family, and maybe go to a party.” Other students prefer to watch the ball drop, like Alex Calderia (‘19). “My favorite thing about New Years is definitely watching the ball drop. I feel chills run down my spine”

Every New Year we create a resolution and try our best to live up to it. For example, Aidan Bartenfelder (‘19) said, “I’m trying to get my grades up.”​New Year's has been a national holiday for over 2,000 years. Every year gets better and better it seems, as we celebrate with family and friends.

After grinding for weeks to prepare for exams, students have Thanksgiving break to look forward to. What better way to relax over break then going to see one of your favorite artists, or just a concert in general to blow off steam? This is a way to see friends over the break and to get re-energized for the upcoming trimester.On November 29, Jay-Z is performing at the Capital One Arena (formerly the Verizon Center). Among students, this is a favorite artist and a big name coming to the DMV area soon. Jay-Z is a legend in the music business. “ It would be fun to hear him in person,” said Robert Schain ‘19). . Jay-Z has a reputation for putting on a good show for his viewers, “it would be a great live atmosphere,” added Schain (‘19).His concert should be one to be remembered forever with the people you go with. “(it should be a good time with good people,” said Schain (‘19) especially after coming off a week of exams to end the trimester.Also coming up in the DMV is long time great performer Mariah Carey, performing at The Theater at MGM National Harbor. She is doing her annual Christmas special on November 24. If you are ready to get into the holiday spirit, it should be a great event to see.Young Thug is also visiting the DMV area, attracting students who like hip-hop and rap music. He has a history of being able to produce lively audiences. “It would be a fun thing to do on thanksgiving break and a good time to hang with my friends,” said Ethan Copeland(‘19).Famous since the and still well known today, The Beach Boys are coming to town tonight, giving students and teachers a concert to go see. They may even awkwardly see one another there! Fashionable pop artist Lady Gaga will also be in town November 19 over the break, as she coasts in to play songs from her album that debuted “Joanne” in the previous year.For students and teachers who enjoy rock, Dead and Company are coming to town November 21, the last day of exams. Though Jerry Garcia is long since gone, Bob Weir is keeping the Dead alive. He has invited guitar guru John Mayer to play along with original Grateful Dead members. Being able to get exams out your mind, and enter the holiday on a good note, the concert can provide you with all of these.Diplo, an up and coming Dj, rapper, and singer will appear at Echo Stage on November 25 over the break; he will give people who are looking for an upbeat concert and a lot of dancing. Using thanksgiving break as a chance to recharge for the new trimester is a good idea, Some stars playing in the DMV may possibly not be coming back for awhile.